Whether you are in vacation rentals business or long term furnished apartments, you need to clearly define you target market. When you know who is your potential client you can be more specific in your advertising efforts and therefore more successful.
Corporate Rentals
Have you considered leasing your home to corporate clients? This is a good option if you want a steady income. It takes more time and effort to find good corporate clients, but once you do, you can enjoy the benefits for a long time with the minimum of headache. The most important part is to provide consistently high level of service. In this economy many companies are trying to save money, and renting high quality apartments or houses for less money than a hotel could be an ideal solution for a large company that hires consultants from other cities or relocates employees between offices. You can attract corporate clients with high-speed wireless internet access, large screen TV with premium cable, office equipment like fax machine or copier, and other bells and whistles such as deluxe coffee machine or maid service (for additional charge, of course). These clients will also need simple and quick check-in and check-out procedures as well as the ability to pay with credit cards. Once you establish the system that will work for corporate clients and you consistently provide high level of customer service, you will be able to charge much more for your property and keep your existing clients for a long time. Corporate clients is a very lucrative niche if you know how to handle it.
Student Rentals
This is an option, which is best for those who are in a position to keep a close eye on the property. It works best when your home is near an education hub where students would be looking for reasonable accommodation. Often students prefer to share rooms so the rent stays low per head, which gives you best returns for your home. The downside here is that students being young would be a little more reckless than regular tenants or vacationers. In this scenario, you might need to keep a close eye on the property or have a manager doing this for you to prevent damages or too high utility costs. Overall this is a very good option that would provide you with steady income if you manage your property effectively.
Assisted Living Rentals
This is a very profitable option for homeowners. However, it does need a more customized approach because this group of tenants has specific needs. Assisted living is designed for disabled or senior people who prefer to live independently, but they need a certain level of assistance for this purpose. Some basic services that you would need to offer would be:
1. Meals – in most cases, disabled or senior people do not have the ability to cook for themselves. It would be excellent if you could offer all the meals as per their requirements.
2. Nursing staff – once again, taking into consideration disabilities or their advanced age and the probability of medical emergencies, you would need specially trained staff on the premises so they could offer instant medical first-aid/relief/mobilize medical help whenever needed. Some people might need 24 hours assistance/companionship, while others might require supervision and/or monitoring only at night.
3. Recreation activities – since these people would be disabled or elderly and likely to have a minimal social life, it would be an added advantage if you offered a few recreational activities so they would feel comfortable and engaged throughout their stay.
4. Maintenance and housekeeping – as with the meals, your tenants would not be able to maintain their homes, take care of the laundry and other related chores. A daily maintenance service would be required to keep them comfortable and cared for. This should include laundry, house maintenance, gardens (lawns), changing of linens and so on.
5. Transport facilities – often, disabled or senior people do not prefer or cannot drive and therefore are constrained when they need to move around even for the most mundane tasks. Transport facilities would definitely be an added advantage; this could be offered on call.
6. Errands – arrangements to have the utility bills paid, groceries brought in, and such things that may require extra effort on the part of your tenants, would be another good point.
Other amenities – amenities such as phone, emergency call system, cable TV, doctor on call, fire and smoke detectors, and so on are other things that you might consider offering when you choose this niche.
Slava Kandakou is Managing Director at Golden City Rentals, Vancouver’s leading provider of furnished apartment rentals. Contact us for more info on furnished apartment rentals in Vancouver, furnished house rentals, and Vancouver corporate housing.
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